"Yes, but we paid them for doing so." "Then they are rogues and robbers if they receive us as guests and then plunder us." "Be not angry, and I will explain." "Sit down." Tutmosis took a seat. "Dost thou know," asked he, "that for a month past I have eaten food from thy kitchen, drunk wine from thy pitchers, and dressed from thy wardrobe?" "Thou hast a right to that privilege." "But I have never acted thus hitherto. I have lived, dressed, and amused myself at my own expense, so as not to burden thy treasury. It is true that thou hast paid my debts more than once, but that was only a part of my outlay." "Never mind the debts!" "In a similar condition," continued Tutmosis, "are some tens of noble youths of thy court. They maintained themselves so as to uphold the splendor of the government; but now, like myself, they live at thy expense, for they have nothing to pay with." "Some time I will reward them." "Now," continued Tutmosis, "we take from thy treasury, for want is oppressing us; the nomarchs do the same. If they had means they would give feasts and receptions at their own cost; but as they have not the means they receive recompense. Wilt thou call them rogues now?" "I condemned them too harshly. Anger, like smoke, covered my eyes," said Rameses. "I am ashamed of my words; none the less I wish that neither courtiers, soldiers, nor working men should suffer injustice. But since my means are exhausted it will be necessary to borrow. Would a hundred talents suffice? What thinkest thou?" "I think that no one would lend us a hundred talents," whispered Tutmosis. The viceroy looked at him haughtily. "Is that a fit answer to the son of a pharaoh?" asked he. "Dismiss me from thy presence," said Tutmosis, sadly, "but I have told the truth. At present no one will make us a loan, for there is no one to do so." "What is Dagon for?" wondered the prince. "He is not near my court; is he dead?" "Dagon is in Pi-Bast, but he spends whole days with other Phœnician merchants in the temple of Astarte in prayer and penance." "Why such devotion? Is it because that I was in a temple that my banker thinks he too should take counsel of the gods?" Tutmosis turned on the stool. "The Phœnicians," said he, "are alarmed; they are even crushed by the news--" "About what?" "Some one has spread the report, worthiness, that when thou shalt mount the throne all Phœnicians will be expelled and their property confiscated." "Well, they have time enough before that," laughed Rameses. Tutmosis hesitated further. "They say," continued he, in a lowered voice, "that in recent days the health of his holiness--may he live through eternity!--has failed notably." "That is untrue!" interrupted the prince, in alarm. "I should know of it." "But the priests are performing religious services in secret for the return of health to the pharaoh. I know this to a certainty." The prince was astonished.